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A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Vol. 4, Issue 47
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1. HBN Update: Welcome New & Renewing HBN Members & HBN Members On The Move!!
2. Handmade Beauty Recipe Of The Week: Hair Food
3. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win some "Kitchen Herb" type fragrance oil!
4. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Line Of Rossape Products 

HBN member Laura Confoy of HBN member sugar coat it is excited to let everyone know about the launch of her new website! Simply yet artfully designed by HBN member Fallen Muse WebWorks, the site features sugar coat it's wonderful sugar scrub! If you missed my review of that product, you can enjoy it here.

Learn more about our members and their exciting activities by visiting their Web sites through HBN's Online Member Directory, now with 4 ways to search: (1) by state/country; (2) by member business name; (3) by keyword search; or (4) using our new alphabetical listings.

When you visit MakeYourCosmetics.com, it's easy to buy the ingredients you need by clicking on our Selected Supplierlinks:

Essential Wholesale: pure essential oils, over 200 cosmetic bases, hundreds of carrier/fixed oils such as meadowfoam, cranberry, jojoba and shea butter plus a new Short Run Private Labeling Program!

Bramble Berry, Inc.: over 105 different fragrance and essential oils (including their exclusive "Energy" and "Relaxing"), all soap tested, soap molds and unscented soap bases!

SunRose Aromatics: pure essential oils (many organic), carrier oils and other aromatherapy products, each carefully selected for quality. Check out their new Perfumer's Emporium.

The Scent Shack: fragrance oils and soap supplies. Fragrance oils are pre-tested in cold process, melt & pour soap, and candles, and test results are listed at the Web site. Scents tested by soapers for soapers!

From Nature With Love: over 1,600 ingredients and supplies, including cosmetic ingredients, spa supplies, bath accessories and packaging supplies!

Last Week's Question:  I am quite an unpleasant bacteria. In fact, I am lethal. I live in the soil and in stream and lake sediments among other places. I cannot survive in extreme dryness or in air, but I thrive in moist, airless environments. I am present in mixtures of oil (usually olive) and herbs that people combine together in an innocent effort to make herbal infusions for use in food and beauty products, and I produce a lethal neurotoxin that can be fatal. What am I?

This Week's Question: I am an organization headed by a person thought by many to be sort of weird. I am dedicated to researching the reasons why people have problems smelling and/or tasting things. One of my recent projects involves testing people's use of flavored food additives as a way to help them lose weight. To win this week, state my name and the name of the flavored food additives my Director uses in the weight loss testing.

Be the first to correctly answer this week's question and win a generous sample of "Kitchen Herb" type fragrance oil from HBN member From Nature With Love!

Please read the contest rules here before submitting your entry. Put "TRIVIA CONTEST ANSWER" in the subject line or your answer will not be considered.

While time does not permit me to respond personally to all entrants, the winner's name will announced in the next newsletter!

Bee Kiss Hand Salve
$12.00 | 2 ounces

For the past few years (as I have aged -- gulp), I have been plagued by dry, flaky skin around my cuticles. I use gloves to wash dishes and clean things, so my hands don't spend an inordinate amount of time around chemicals. Nevertheless, my cuticles suffer from cracking and splitting no matter what I do. As a result, I have started using more and more intensive treatments on my hands and cuticles and I tend to keep a hand product within fairly easy reach. Bee Kiss Hand Salve is my newest discovery, and I like it a lot. In addition to beeswax, it's made with calendula (a favorite skin soothing herb), shea and mango butters and olive oil. Marina tells me it's an old family recipe! A subtle fragrance lent by rosemary essential oil makes it a pleasure to use and slightly bracing. Not only does it make my itchy hands feel better, but I have also been massaging it across my not-so-long-ago pregnant belly, which still suffers from a bit of dryness as it tries to find its former self (which of course it cannot do fast enough for me!)

Beeswax + Honey Handmade Soap
$6.50 | 4 ounce bar

It's no secret that there is no shortage of handmade soaps in my bath. It's also no secret that when I find a new bar that really excites me, I can hardly wait to tell you about it! Well, Beeswax + Honey Handmade Soap is the first bar of soap I've used in many months that contains beeswax, which gives a bar of soap added hardness and enhances a smooth texture.  Beeswax + Honey Handmade Soap is available in several scents, but I have the Bergamot & Rose Geranium, a pretty pink bar of soap made with moisture-rich oils like jojoba, castor, avocado and shea butter. I love the way it smells and the lather is soothing and frothy. It also feels very smooth when massaged directly over my skin. Beeswax + Honey Handmade Soap is also available in other scents like Tuscan Tangerine and Honey Citrus.

Other products made by Marina and bearing her Red Bee brand include lip balm (1/2 oz/$6.00), beeswax candles in assorted colors and foot rub (1/2 oz/$7.00). Plus, Marina has put her design talents to work to create a line of greeting cards, including holiday cards, featuring her signature Red Bee. Greeting cards include the Red Bee wishing you happy holidays with messages like "Peace Bee With You" and "May Your Days Bee Merry And Bright." They are delightful! Check out all of the fragrant Italian beeswax-laden products and Red Bee greeting card options for yourself at their website!

Visit our suite of Web sites serving the handmade toiletries industry:

HandmadeBeauty.com: the leading industry trade organization
MangoButter.com: 450+ suppliers of raw materials and packaging, updated weekly!
MakeYourCosmetics.com: ingredient encyclopedia & original cosmetics recipes
DonnaMaria.com: sound advice for your small business, Create The Life You Love™
AromaGirls .com: Coming Soon: "defining beauty for ourselves"